EXCLUSIVE . . . MRS. CLINTON DOWNSHIFTS HER ROLE

A senior Administration source tells TIME that Hillary Rodham Clinton will bow to public discomfort with her czar-like role in policy issues and play advocate instead. President Clinton and the first lady have talked at length about her role and how she is perceived: "They've concluded she is an enormous asset to him personally," says the source, but the American people "want her to be an advocate for causes she believes in, and not operationally in charge of things. They feel that having her running a piece of the action is hard for the public to understand." Instead, the First Couple have agreed that Mrs. Clinton will focus, to start, on two issues in which she has become personally interested: mammography and "Gulf War syndrome." The president, however, remains unmoved by criticism of her high profile last year, the source says: "His attitude on that is, there are a hell of a lot worse things in life than getting caught red-handed trying to give health care to 40 million people."